An article in today’s Mooresville Tribune reports that Mooresville Commissioners considered the purchase of the old Burlington Mills plant on the south end of the downtown area. After their discussion, they “decided not to act” on the chance to buy the plant for $1.7 million. See the article HERE. I’d posted about the plant back in September when the owners decided to give up their own development plans and put it up for sale.
I’m very glad the commissioners decided not to act on this, although the town manager says that their vote doesn’t keep them from acting on it in the future. Spending money on this might be a great opportunity for investing in the future of the community (hey, what a deal at $2.25/square foot and 38 acres). Trouble is, the town is not a commercial operation, in spite of the MI-Connection purchase, and should not be involved in spending money on things that cannot be construed as a public utility. You can make that case, if you stretch logic, for the MI-Connection decision, but not for this. Since I’m in real estate, I see investors considering buying property in order to get a good return on their investment. This purchase of the old mill would be akin to a private investor buying land with a beat up old building cheaply, hoping they can either fix up the house or remove it and build something new. In either case, before any return on the investment is realized, many more dollars are going to have to be spent to make the property capable of producing revenue, whether by renting it or selling it. Further, there are decisions on what the property should ultimately be designed to do, and how much money can reasonably be spent to put it in that uprated condition. After the money is spent, the investor still has to find a buyer or tenant. The likelihood of that is closely tied to many variables including the location, the price asked, and now most importantly, the state of the economy at that time.
I hope this is an indicator that all of the commissioners understand the feelings of the community after seeing the results of our recent election. Government can do many things to help local investors decide to spend money here that would benefit the whole town, including offering temporary tax breaks. Spending tax dollars for non-public utility assets is not a good strategy.
Thank you, commissioners.
![Po - [Explored]](http://static.flickr.com/7225/7260527994_23e4e5f04b_t.jpg "Po - [Explored]")
Nice piece Stan. Sadly, it appears the old mill property will eventually have to be razed to make way for something else. It’s historic, it’s nostalgic for many but the cost to renovate the property and the returns that could be generated from operating it, just don’t work for an investment.